experience pays Broad range of skills increases marketability

After working in Chicago and Indianapolis, Sheila Naab returned to the Tri-state to work for SABIC.

BOB GWALTNEY / EBJ

BOB GWALTNEY / EBJ
After working in Chicago and Indianapolis, USI graduate Sheila Naab returned to the tri-state where she works in corporate communications at SABIC in Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

(File Photo) Shelia Naab, spokeswoman for the facility, said the phosgene leak was under control Tuesday and no one was injured BOB GWALTNEY / EBJ

For anyone who seeks advice on how to become more marketable in the corporate world, just ask Shelia Naab. She's had lots of experience in that regard.

Naab left her native Evansville shortly after graduating in 1995 from the University of Southern Indiana but was unable to find a job in her chosen field of public relations.

"My original intent was to stay here, but I found nothing here for me," she said.

She soon landed a job in Chicago as an administrative assistant for a major public relations firm, Creamer-Krasselt. There, she began grooming herself to become more marketable.

"I volunteered to stay after work, anything to get more experience, and it paid off," she said.

"I was promoted to an account executive and then to a public relations account manager with Creamer-Krasselt."

Later, Naab advanced in positions she held with other major companies in Chicago and Indianapolis.

Last year, Naab and her husband, Justin Naab, a Mount Vernon, Ind., native, decided to return to the Evansville area to raise their family and to be closer to relatives. Naab searched the Internet for job openings in the area and found a position at SABIC-Innovative Plastics, formerly General Electric, in Mount Vernon, Ind.

"I was amazed. The qualifications for the job almost summed up everything I had ever done in my career. It seemed a perfect fit," she said.

Naab applied for the position of site communications leader and got it.

"I feel like I'm here for good now. It's the place I want to be," she said.

She also likes it that her children have the opportunity to grow up knowing their family members.

Naab left a position as internal communications director for WellPoint Inc., a large health insurance company in Indianapolis, to return to the Evansville area.

Over the years, she kept focused on what it would take to make her more marketable.

"I realized I would have to be very broad-focused in my skills, and I would have to be more of a generalist to be able to fill almost any position."

Among Naab's other past employers were:

Chicago's Edelman Public Relations, where she was a public relations account executive working with health and pharmaceutical accounts.

Chicago's Academy of Periodontology, where, as a public relations representative, she worked on patient education programs and created patient brochures and news releases about clinical studies.

Indianapolis' Roche Diagnostics Corp., where she was an internal communications consultant.